CherohalaSkyway

Crews respond to brush fire

Marshall McClung
Monday, March 9, 2026
Santeetlah – Both the Graham County Fire and Rescue and the N.C. Forest Service were dispatched around 9:30 p.m., Saturday to a brush fire burning along N.C. 143, roughly one mile west of the Cherohala Skyway.

Indiana woman dies in Skyway accident

Kevin Hensley
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Cherohala – An Indiana woman died after being involved in a motorcycle accident June 6 on the Cherohala Skyway. According to an accident report from the N.C. Highway Patrol, Kelli Ann Hicks, 51, of Michigan City, Ind.
Legislation re-introduced by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards would allow a memorial for nine Air Force crew members to be moved from its current location off the Cherohala Skyway to the Stratton Ridge Rest Area. Photos by Kevin Hensley/editor@grahamstar.com

Legislation re-introduced by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards would allow a memorial for nine Air Force crew members to be moved from its current location off the Cherohala Skyway to the Stratton Ridge Rest Area. Photos by Kevin Hensley/editor@grahamstar.com

Air Force Memorial Act re-introduced

Kevin Hensley
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Cherohala – U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C. of Hendersonville) recently re-introduced legislation that would move a memorial off of the Cherohala Skyway and closer to the site of a crash that killed nine U.S. Air Force crew members more than 42 years ago.

Tennessee officer dies after accident

Kevin Hensley
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Cherohala – A Georgia man has passed away from injuries he sustained in a two-vehicle accident on the Cherohala Skyway last month. According to a report from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, 52-year-old Ringgold resident Enoch Daniel Ian Hurd was traveling east on N.C.

Tennessee man found deceased inside car on Skyway

Kevin Hensley
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Santeetlah – A 46-year-old man drove onto the Cherohala Skyway in the early-morning hours of March 7, parked on the side of the road and took his own life. Brendan Sean Lynch of Decherd, Tenn., was found deceased of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.
A memorial – with names of those lost engraved into the stone – was placed on private land about six miles east of the 1982 crash site of a U.S. Air Force C-141B cargo jet. A new bill would have the memorial closer to the site of the crash, which is off the Cherohala Skyway. Photo courtesy of Randy Foster/Community Newspapers, Inc.

A memorial – with names of those lost engraved into the stone – was placed on private land about six miles east of the 1982 crash site of a U.S. Air Force C-141B cargo jet. A new bill would have the memorial closer to the site of the crash, which is off the Cherohala Skyway. Photo courtesy of Randy Foster/Community Newspapers, Inc.

Bill would move memorial

Ruby Annas
Thursday, November 30, 2023
U.S Congressman Chuck Edwards (R-Hendersonville) recently introduced a bill to the House of Representatives to relocate a memorial to the Cherohala Skyway in Graham County, to honor the nine Air Force crew members who lost their lives in the Amore 66 plane crash.

UT student killed in crash

Kevin Hensley
Thursday, June 29, 2023
Cherohala – A 19-year-old man passed away from injuries sustained in a June 16 motorcycle accident on the Cherohala Skyway. According to a report from the N.C. Highway Patrol, Luke Henry Pennington was the sole rider on a 2005 Harley Davidson that was traveling south on N.C.

Stove explodes inside tent

Marshall McClung
Thursday, March 23, 2023
A lone hiker from Indiana who had set up camp on Stratton Bald had a close call around 8:30 p.m. March 16, when his small backpacking stove exploded starting a grass fire and burning a hole in his tent. Fortunately, he escaped unharmed. His identity was not released to The Graham Star.
A swarm of attendees mill around Saturday’s Cherohala Skyway Festival. The annual extravaganza is held in Tellico Plains, Tenn., which was connected to Robbinsville with the skyway’s opening in 1996. Photos by Randy Foster/news@grahamstar.com

A swarm of attendees mill around Saturday’s Cherohala Skyway Festival. The annual extravaganza is held in Tellico Plains, Tenn., which was connected to Robbinsville with the skyway’s opening in 1996. Photos by Randy Foster/news@grahamstar.com

Cherohala Skyway festival draws crowds to Tellico Plains

Randy Foster
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Tellico Plains, Tenn. – Thousands of spectators converged on Tellico Plains on Saturday, for the sixth annual Cherohala Skyway Festival. The event is a fundraiser for the Charles Hall Museum of History & Heritage, and other organizations in the Tellico Plains area.